People are faced daily with life decisions that require them to make choices based on the sources of authority operative in their decision-making framework. For instance, a teenager pregnant out of wedlock makes choices about the baby by asking these questions: What will my parents think (parental authority)? How do my girlfriends handle their crisis pregnancies (peer authority)? Is abortion a socially acceptable option (cultural authority)? What does the Bible say about my responsibility to and for this new life (scriptural authority)?
The final decision made by this teenager reflects her prioritizing of these various sources of authority. The source of authority with the highest priority wins and determines which option—abortion, adoption or keep the baby—she chooses. We all function with a hierarchy of authority that governs our life choices.
By the same token, the church of Jesus Christ makes its decisions and directs its action according to its source of authority. In the Presbyterian Church (USA), its members acknowledge three sources of authority, namely Jesus Christ, Scripture, and the Confessions. “These confessional statements are subordinate standards in the church subject to the authority of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, as the Scriptures bear witness to him” (Book of Order G-2.0200). This implies that a hierarchy of authority governs the life of Presbyterians.
Hierarchy of Authority
At first glance, this Book of Order provision appears to suggest a hierarchy of authority which might look like this:
- Jesus
- Scripture
- Confessions
This understanding of the hierarchy presents a few problems. First, it dissociates the authority of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, from the authority of Scripture, the Written Word of God, thus creating a false dichotomy between the two sources of authority. Second, it subtly suggests that Scripture is a lesser source of authority than the person of Jesus Christ and implicitly denies the fact that Scripture is indeed the very Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16). Third, it minimizes the authority of the confessional statements since Scripture is presumed to be void of divine origin.
Technically, the Bible is norma normans and the Confessions are norma normata. While both norms are authoritative, the Confessions carry derivative authority because they are derived from Scripture which has innate authority as the very Word of God. The following diagram more closely represents the hierarchy of authority that the Reformed tradition espouses:
- Scripture
- Confessions
The triangle represents the trinitarian God who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Spirit through the body of Scripture which provides humans with a window into God who, apart from self-revelation, is not knowable by humans. In developing Reformed theology, the Reformers began with Scripture as the starting point and ended with Scripture as the final authority, thus the Reformed tenet of sola scriptura. Scripture is the written revelation that reveals the Revealer Jesus Christ. The Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, and the Inscripturated Word, the canonical Scripture, are in agreement, rather than in argument, with each other.
The principle of sola scriptura is preserved when the Confessions and Scripture are identical in doctrinal content. As subordinate standards, the Confessions summarize Scripture; they also affirm and testify to Scripture. The Confessions are judged by Scripture and their authority depends on whether or not they are in agreement with Scripture.
Common Misunderstandings
The church embraces the Confessions as authoritative standards only to the extent that it accepts the authority of Scripture as final. A church will minimize or disregard the authority of the Confessions when it is skeptical of the final authority of Scripture or when it pits the authority of Jesus Christ against the authority of Scripture. As a result, our view of the relationship between Jesus Christ (the Incarnate Word) and Scripture (the Written Word) determines our view of confessional authority. Throughout the centuries, professing Christians have fallen victims of several common misunderstandings regarding the relationship between Jesus Christ and Scripture.
First, some Christians believe that Jesus Christ, (the one Revealed in Scripture) and Scripture (the Revelation of Jesus Christ) are in competition, sometimes even in contradiction, with each other. For instance, in a report presented to the 177th General Assembly (1965), the drafting committee of the 1967 Confession included the following statement:
This section [on the Bible] is an intended revision of the Westminster doctrine, which rested primarily on a view of inspiration that equated the Biblical canon directly with the Word of God. By contrast, the preeminent and primary meaning of the Word of God in the Confession of 1967 is the Word of God incarnate. The function of the Bible is to be the instrument of the revelation of the Word in the living church.
Second, some teach that faith in Jesus Christ can be realized apart from faith in his words, faith in Scripture, and faith in a particular doctrine taught in Scripture. Using the words in John 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” The apostle John clearly states that Scripture has been written for the express purpose of accomplishing personal faith in Jesus Christ. One cannot profess a subjective faith in the person of Jesus Christ without simultaneously embracing the doctrinal truth about Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture.
Third, a common yet unspoken belief in the modern American church is that one can profess faith in the person of Jesus Christ without rejecting teachings and religions that contradict the Christological truth revealed in Scripture; that one can say “Yes” to Jesus Christ without saying “No” to other false saviors and false lords. This is a universalist mindset that believes all religions are equally valid pathways to God.
In Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples two key questions: “Who do people say the Son of Man is” and “Who do you say I am” (Matthew 16:13-20). The history of religion in the region boasts of allegiance to Baal in the Old Testament times, veneration of Pan and nymphs during the Greek era, and emperor worship during the Roman era. Today a Muslim shrine stands tall on the cliff. Against the background of multiculturalism and against the backdrop of vast and varied religious traditions, the Lord Jesus called on his twelve apostles to express their conviction about his Messiahship and to declare their personal and exclusive loyalty to him.
The disciples confessed their personal (subjective) faith in Jesus as the Christ not only because of their personal (subjective) experience with him in flesh and blood, but also because they recognized him as the Messianic fulfillment of Scripture, the objective standard that governed their subjective experience of faith. Their confessional statement is a credible and trustworthy statement because the Christ they confessed matches the Christ of the Hebrew Scripture. This once again points to the finality of scriptural authority. This also confirms that the Confessions are authoritative when the Christ of the Confessional statements matches the Christ of the Scripture.
Jesus’ View of Scripture
Since the confessional statements derive their authority from Scripture and Jesus Christ is the Person revealed in and by Scripture, it would be instructive to study Jesus’ attitude toward Scripture.
First, Jesus regarded Scripture as authoritative for his own life. In his encounter with the tempter (Matthew 4:1-11), Jesus answered each of Satan’s seductions with “It is written.” He submitted his actions to the authority of Scripture.
Second, Jesus regarded faith in Scripture as an indispensable pathway to personal faith in him. Jesus confronted the Jews with their unbelief in the Hebrew Scripture: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” (John 5:45-47). In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:31), Jesus regarded Scripture as the sufficient authority for faith.
Third, Jesus regarded himself as the fulfillment of, rather than the replacement of Scripture. Jesus clearly stated: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17-20).
Fourth, Jesus regarded obedience to Scripture as an essential mark of faith. He exposed the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for breaking the command of God and nullifying the Word of God for the sake of their tradition (Matthew 15:3-6).
Calvin’s Teachings
John Calvin, the father of Presbyterian theology, wrote extensively on the final authority of Scripture (Institutes Book I), reflecting the same attitude toward Scripture as Jesus. The following is a summary of his teachings:
Scripture is the source and the standard for sound doctrine (Ch. VI.2). Scripture is the self-witness of God (Ch. VI.2; John 5:39), therefore it is the very Word of God (Ch. VII.5). The authenticity and authority of Scriptures do not depend on the approval and acceptance by the church, because “it is utterly vain . . . to pretend that the power of judging Scripture so lies with the church that its certainty depends upon churchly assent” (Ch. VII.2). Scripture is self-authenticated by God the Spirit. “. . .[the] highest proof of Scripture derives in general from the fact that God in person speaks in it. The prophets and apostles do not boast either of their keenness or of anything that obtains credit for them as they speak; nor do they dwell upon rational proofs. Rather, they bring forward God’s holy name. . . . For as God alone is a fit witness of himself in his Word, so also the Word will not find acceptance in men’s heart before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit” (Ch. VII.4).
The Holy Spirit and Scripture
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, inspired the writing of Scripture. The same Holy Spirit illumines these words of God to us today so that we may accurately interpret them and personally appropriate them into our lives as a step of personal faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, the Holy Spirit plays an indispensable role in the inspiration process (the writing of Scripture), the interpretation process (the writing of the Confessions), and the appropriation process (the personal coming to faith, 1 Corinthians 12:1-3). However, insofar as the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, the word of the Holy Spirit is the same Word as Scripture.
A common trend in the modern church is to attribute to the Holy Spirit every novel interpretation of Scripture or every cultural adaptation of Christian standards. The result is that the Holy Spirit becomes the convenient rubber-stamp for all novel ideas including those that violate scriptural standards. Calvin warned against this devious use of the Holy Spirit with these words:
“. . . those who, having forsaken Scripture, imagine some way or other of reaching God, ought to be thought of as not so much gripped by error as carried away with frenzy. . . .I should like to know from them what this spirit is by whose inspiration they are borne up so high that they dare despise the Scriptural doctrine. . . .For if they answer that it is the Spirit of Christ, such assurance is utterly ridiculous . . . the apostles of Christ and other believers of the primitive church were illumined by no other Spirit. Yet no one of them thence learned contempt for God’s word . . . [Isaiah] teaches that under the reign of Christ the new church will have this true and complete happiness: to be ruled no less by the voice of God than by the Spirit” (Ch.IX.1).
Calvin thus affirms a particular relationship between the Spirit and Scripture. First, there is an inviolable unity between the Holy Spirit and Scripture: the Spirit who inspired the writing of Scripture centuries ago is the same Spirit who illumines Scripture today for us. Second, the Holy Spirit witnesses to, in and through Scripture; but the same Spirit does not witness apart from or above Scripture. “. . . [we] ought zealously to apply ourselves both to read and to hearken to Scripture if indeed we want to receive any gain and benefit from the Spirit of God” (Ch. IX.2; Ch. IX.3). Third, the litmus test of whether or not a teaching originates from the Spirit of Christ is by measuring it against the apostolic teachings as recorded in Scripture (Ch. IX.1).
Conclusion
As believers in Jesus Christ and as members of a confessional church, Presbyterians live according to three sources of authority: Jesus Christ, Scripture, and the Confessions. There is a particular order of priority to these sources but they are not in competition with or in contradiction with each other. The Reformers began with Scripture and ended with Scripture because they accepted Scripture as the very Word of God, the self-revelation of God. Scripture is self-authenticated and authoritative by virtue of the fact that its author is God. Jesus Christ himself accepted Scripture as authoritative and did not pit his own authority against scriptural authority. Though subordinate to the authority of Scripture, the Confessions are authoritative in as much as the Confessions are in doctrinal agreement with Scripture.
Questions
- What are the common sources of authority that govern our lives as followers of Jesus Christ? How are these sources prioritized?
- Think of an important life decision you had to make. What sources of authority governed or guided your decision-making?
- What is the place of personal experience in the hierarchy of authority?
- What is the relationship between: (a) Christ and culture; (b) Scriptural authority and cultural authority; (c) Scriptural authority and ecclesiastical authority.
- Calvin wrote: “[God the Spirit] is the Author of the Scriptures: he cannot vary and differ from himself” (Calvin’s Institutes, Book I, Ch. IX.2). What does this teach about the timelessness of doctrinal truth?
This study first appeared in Theology Matters, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 1998).
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